Read the passage and answer the questions given below it.
From the window of a bus on the road to Jaisalmer, the Thar can look empty: scrub, sand, a few goats, and rows of tall pylons running to the horizon. This open land is the main home of the Great Indian Bustard, one of the heaviest flying birds. Perhaps 150 are left in the wild, and most of them live here.
The bird’s trouble lies partly in its build. Its eyes are set on the sides of its head, so it sees poorly straight ahead, and a body that heavy cannot swerve in a hurry. Flying low over the scrub, it often notices a wire too late. Scientists count these crashes into power lines among the main reasons the bird is dying out.
In 2021 the Supreme Court ordered that power lines in the bird’s key areas be laid underground where possible, and fitted with bright bird diverters elsewhere. Energy companies objected, and their case was not a weak one. The same desert is among India’s best sites for solar and wind farms, and burying high-voltage lines over long distances is costly and sometimes not practical. The court later changed its order and asked experts to decide where burying was truly needed.
Wildlife officials collect eggs from the wild and hatch them at breeding centres near Jaisalmer. A female usually lays a single egg, so each chick matters. The programme is meant to buy time. But a chick raised in a centre must one day be let out into the same sky. And the wires are still going up.
The phrase ‘buy time’, as used in the last paragraph, means
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → put off the bird’s loss for a while, in the hope of a lasting fix
To buy time means to delay something bad so that there is more time to deal with it.
- The breeding centres add a few chicks and keep the bird from vanishing at once.
- But the next lines say the chicks go back into “the same sky”, where “the wires are still going up”. So breeding only delays the loss. The real answer must still be found. Example: Riya asked a question about the rules to buy time while she thought of her answer.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 2: pay money to keep the bird safe for a fixed number of years — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: This is the meaning of pay for, the everyday sense of buy. Example: My uncle paid for two years of insurance on his scooter.
Option 3: make the bird’s numbers grow fast within a short period — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: This is the meaning of boost. Example: The new bus route helped boost the number of visitors to the fort.
Option 4: fix the date by which the young birds raised in centres must be set free — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: This is the meaning of set a deadline. Example: Our teacher set a deadline of Friday for the science project.